Minewater - Sustainable Redevelopment of Mining Communities

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Minewater aims to revive old and declining mining areas by extracting geothermal heat from water trapped in flooded mines. The main objective of this 20 M euro project is to reduce the ex-mining communities’ ecological footprint by demonstrating that it is both economically viable and environmentally sound to extract geothermal energy from water in closed coal mines. It will seek to disseminate this new renewable energy resource throughout North West and eastern Europe, which also faces the challenge of managing the decline of traditional coal industries. Subsidiary objectives include developing new housing areas within old communities that will benefit from this renewable energy. The project will be piloted on a transnational basis by Heerlen (Netherlands) and Midlothian (UK) councils, enabling common European issues to be addressed and strengthening partners’ perseverance in finding solutions. Also, as mining areas cross national boundaries, adoption of the technology will contribute to more geographically balanced development across North West Europe.

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